The Warriors tried to trade for Paul George. They tried to trade for Lauri Markkanen. They even looked at acquiring LeBron James last year. But not one of those players would likely solve this team, and Stephen Curry seemed to reflect that Monday night.
After a 104-101 loss in Toronto to the lowly 9-31 Raptors, Curry indicated he may be alright with the organization holding onto its draft assets and facing the reality that this team might not be good enough to double down on.
"Desperate trade, or desperate moves that deplete the future, there is a responsibility of keeping the franchise in a good space when it comes to where we leave this thing when we're done," Curry said. "It doesn't mean that you're not trying to get better. It doesn't mean that you're not active in any type of search. If you have an opportunity where a trade makes sense, or even in the summer, free agency makes sense. You want to continue to get better.
"Nobody wants to be stale or be in a situation where you're passing up opportunities. But it doesn't mean that you're desperate just flinging assets all around the place just because you want to do something. Mike understands we want to win. We want to be in that position where we've always said that you want to be relevant in the championship chase, while we understand we're getting older and deeper into our careers and allowing some of the young guys to blossom. It doesn't mean you're getting desperate. It's better to patient and understand what that looks like."
Curry said he's kept abreast of the Warriors' trade options.
"If there was a situation that made sense for our team, I’m pretty sure we’d know about it," Curry said. "That’s how we’ve always operated.”
After the Warriors' Thursday night win over the Detroit Pistons, Draymond Green framed the situation in a similar light.
“The beautiful part about being in the space that we're in is, Steve Kerr, Steph Curry and myself all disagree with mortgaging off the future of this organization, saying that we're going for it right now,” Green told Yahoo Sports' Vincent Goodwill.
It's a bit jarring to hear those narratives from players, but remember that Curry came into the organization when winning was not part of the DNA. He has seen more than anyone what it takes to build up a roster and a franchise. Both he and Green are realists, and they recognize the reality.
To put it as simply as possible, the Warriors don't have the dudes. They don't have a team capable of competing for a championship, and the reality of the NBA's new, extremely restrictive collective bargaining agreement, is that moves are much more difficult to make than they used to be.
As creative as Mike Dunleavy Jr. and the rest of the Warriors' front office was this offseason with the moves that brought them Buddy Hield, Kyle Anderson and De'Anthony Melton, the reality is that Hield is still a streaky shooter, Anderson is a nice, but not needle-moving rotation piece, and Melton was the brief, perfect piece, but his injury history caught up with him once again.
And what are the Warriors' big-swing options now? Jimmy Butler? They could trade Andrew Wiggins, Dennis Schroder and Kyle Anderson for Jimmy Butler with draft picks. But they'd have to extend Butler this offseason, and they'd need to include future first-round capital to get that done.
With Curry, 36, nursing issues with his knees including fluid buildup, and Green, 34, dealing with back pain that's plagued him for much of his career, and then Butler, 35, someone who has dealt with knee injuries for most of his career, do you really have a lineup that's capable of even getting through a season, let alone a playoff grind?
The Warriors are indicating that they aren't good enough, and they're probably too old and unhealthy this season to warrant that. Jonathan Kuminga's ankle injury certainly complicates the outlook.
Instead, they face the obvious, dull path: stand pat. Stand pat, let your young players (hopefully) improve and maybe make the play-in tournament. But that option points to another possibility, though not one the Warriors have posited at this point.
As the season lingers, and the Warriors remain far from contention with Curry and Green nursing injuries, there may come a point in which it might make more sense for those two to rest.
That will be up to them and the coaching and training staff, but in acknowledging where the Warriors are, and where they are headed — with Curry speaking explicitly to his own age and letting "young guys blossom" — the Warriors leave the door open to a slow ramping down if this thing naturally goes sideways.
This is not a team that will ever intentionally lose games, but if they lean into this trajectory, this season could turn into a rest and recovery situation. What the Warriors' leaders are saying is that they see the reality. They are not good enough, and they are not close to being good enough.
This is an existential moment for a team stuck in the valley between the two timelines. And for the moment, they just have to sit there, hoping that the improvement of their young players and options in the offseason sets up a climb out the other side.